Pils solves Libertyville's ills in win over Lake Zurich

Reluctantly, Griffin Pils took a chill pill, so to speak.

The Libertyville junior guard injured his hand in practice a day before the Wildcats hosted Stevenson last Friday. So, much to his chagrin, he played sparingly against Stevenson.

"We took him out and said it's not worth it," Wildcats coach Scott Bogumil said. "I said, 'Hey, we might need you on Tuesday to play, so we don't need you to go out here and ding (the hand) again.' "

When high-scoring guard Ryan Barth dinged his left knee 2½ minutes into Tuesday's North Suburban Lake Division game at Lake Zurich, Bogumil needed Pils to play.

Pils' play earned him a hand.

Playing with his wounded hand taped, Pils came off the bench to score 11 points and help Libertyville rally for a 58-56 win against the host Bears and former Wildcats assistant coach Billy Pitcher.

"Sure enough, it was a prophecy," Bogumil said with a laugh of Pils. "We needed him a lot tonight."

Barth, who came in averaging 22 points per game, lay on the court for a couple of minutes before finally limping off on his own power. He tried to return but played only about a minute of the second quarter before taking a seat again and not returning.

"It was different playing without Barth because he normally scores a lot," Pils said. "We just had to have other people score for us."

Bogumil said Barth twisted his knee, which then stiffened up on him.

Lake Zurich, meanwhile, wasn't showing any sympathy. While 6-foot-8 Drake Orser was scoring inside for the Bears, guard Colin Rathe was scoring outside.

Lake Zurich (1-5, 0-2) was up 29-15 after Orser took a pass from Rathe and sank a hook shot midway through the second quarter. But Libertyville (4-2, 2-0) closed the half with an 8-0 run.

"We told the kids we lost the game in that situation, letting them get back in, instead of being able to pull away," said Pitcher, who coached six seasons at Libertyville before getting the head job at Lake Zurich in the spring.

"We rely on Ryan so much offensively," Bogumil said of Barth. "A big part of our offense is him creating everything.

"I think that when he went out, we were just so out of sorts offensively, and I think that affected our defense because we were taking ridiculous shots."

Libertyville took better shots in the third quarter, many of which came in transition after Lake Zurich turnovers. Pils scored 8 points in the quarter on 4-of-5 shooting.

"I was just attacking and looking for my shot more, because that's what (Bogumil) told me at halftime," Pils said.

Libertyville outscored Lake Zurich 25-14 in the third and led 48-43 heading into the final quarter.

"We just had some mental lapses and didn't get back (on defense)," Pitcher said. "And then we just weren't aggressive on offense, and that led to a lot of offense for them. They got a lot of their offense out of their defense."

Mike Boyd's 3-pointer and Orser's putback pulled the Bears even early in the fourth, but Pils' 3 gave the lead back to the visitors. When Ellis Matthews (team-high 16 points) fed Joey Eichmann for a layup, the Libertyville lead was five. Jeff O'Brien scored in the lane for Lake Zurich, but Matthews answered by sinking a 3-pointer off a Pils pass.

Boyd intentionally missed the second of 2 free throws with 4.1 seconds left, but Lake Zurich couldn't get off a potential game-tying or winning shot.

Orser led Lake Zurich with 16 points and 9 rebounds. Mirko Grcic added 14 points, while Rathe had all 12 of his points (three 3s) in the first half.

Libertyville got double-digit points from Matthews, Pils, sub Anthony Mack (12 points) and Luke Mathewson (11).

"It was just big because no one was pumped up before (the game)," Pils said. "There was no adrenaline because there were no students out here. We just had to come out and build our own energy."